Better Than TV
by ciaan
Summary: Superboy, Miss Martian, Aqualad, cuddling.


Superboy thinks that Miss Martian's TV show is boring, even though it keeps laughing at itself. She laughs, too, but never when the TV does. He doesn't understand why these people have an invisible crowd in their house that laughs at them or why they put up with it. If that happened to him he would find the invisible people and punch them.

Miss Martian laughs, and Superboy scowls, and Aqualad sits between them and stares thoughtfully at the screen, lips pursed and a slight wrinkle between his eyebrows, as if trying to figure it out.

The invisible people laugh again and Aqualad sighs and leans back further, crossing his legs at the ankle and spreading his arms out on either side of him along the back of the couch. Superboy sits stiffly, trying not to touch the arm that is now behind him. Touching someone accidentally is impolite.

He does not touch people except when he's fighting or sparring. Or sometimes after battle Kid Flash will want to exchange high-fives.

If he listens, Superboy can hear Robin and Kid Flash on the other side of the mountain. They are arguing cheerfully about something incomprehensible. He can hear the slight whirr and hum of Red Tornado's internal machinery a level below them.

Black Canary left a short while ago after their training session. She smiled at him and said that he did well in the session. That is not enough. He wants to do this, the job, he wants to do it right. He wants to be the best. He is currently not.

Hopefully Batman will contact them soon about another mission. Until then, Superboy waits and watches TV.

He watches TV a lot. He uses the training room. He reads. Sometimes he stares at things. There is not much else to do in the mountain during the week. He considers whether to go and finish counting all the tiles in the ceiling of the locker room, but he can do that later, when no one else is around. While the whole team is here he should stay with them. That is what teams do. Is it not?

He listens in on Robin and Kid Flash again, but he still can't understand why they care so much about the characteristics of an Adidas.

The woman on screen punches the man in the arm and the invisible people laugh really hard. It was not an effective punch.

Miss Martian shifts and the cushions rustle under her. When she's done shifting she's sitting closer to Aqualad. Then she leans against him. He smiles and moves his hand down onto her shoulder. She leans even closer and wraps an arm around his waist, curling her legs up on the cushions next to her.

If you're not saving someone's life, when is it polite to touch them on purpose?

When Martian Manhunter arrived with Black Canary the other day, Miss Martian ran up to him and wrapped her arms around him. She... hugged him. She was glad that he was there.

Superboy is glad that his teammates are here. It is better on weekends when they are all around. It is better here in Mount Justice than it was in Cadmus. It is good when they all go outside on a mission and help people.

Should he be hugging them, then? No one has ever hugged Superboy.

Aqualad still looks thoughtful. Miss Martian is still smiling.

Superboy moves just a little closer.

There is no response, so he shifts another inch closer. Now his skin prickles with the feel of someone inside his space. Usually that feeling makes him want to move away from the other person, makes him tense, makes him want to fight. Now the prickles make him want to move closer.

He does. As soon as his side is pressed against Aqualad's the prickles stop. Everything from his shoulder to his knee is touching the other boy, except for where Miss Martian's hand is around Aqualad's waist and now squeezed between them. Aqualad's arm is resting against the back of Superboy's neck. Aqualad's body is warm and solid. It reminds Superboy of when he grabbed Aqualad and tried to fly out of Cadmus, except this time he doesn t fall. Miss Martian's hand is cooler, softer, and it bends and melts as she twists it out from between them, then firms again as she places it against the small of Superboy's back. He can feel the lines of her fingers through his t-shirt. Her thumb moves in a restless little circle.

Miss Martian laughs again and Superboy glances sideways surreptitiously, out of the corner of his eye, to see Aqualad grinning. He drops his hand onto Superboy's shoulder. It feels heavier than a hand should, resting there, and somehow Superboy likes that.

He twists his own hands together in his lap, unsure what to do with them. For a few moments he does nothing. Miss Martian keeps circling her thumb against his back. Aqualad bumps his foot against Superboy's ankle.

Superboy is pretty sure that he needs to do something more in order to be doing this correctly.

He lifts his arm and curves it around Aqualad's shoulders, slipping his hand under Miss Martian's hair and resting it on the back of her neck. She presses into his touch, dropping her cheek to Aqualad's deltoid.

Miss Martian's skin is very smooth, with no tiny wrinkles or hairs, smoother even than the plastic feel of her shirt. Her hair is a silken sheen across the back of his hand. Under his palm her neck is a perfectly curved surface with no jutting vertebrae. Unlike his own neck. Unlike the hard points of Aqualad's scapulae.

Everything inside her feels all of a piece, no distinctions of muscle and bone. Superboy slips his hand lower, runs his fingers along the inside of Aqualad's elbow, feeling the porous texture of his skin, the roughness as his hair follicles stiffen, the inky bumps of his tattoos. Aqualad's muscles and tendons flex and his fingers press into Superboy's shoulder, nails digging in, creating points of warmth.

Superboy stretches his hand, two fingers on Aqualad's arm, the rest on Miss Martian's neck, her hair tangling around his wrist. Aqualad takes a deep breath, his ribs shifting against Superboy's, his gills fluttering. Miss Martian laughs. Superboy hasn't been paying any attention to the TV. He doesn't know if she's laughing because of it or because of them. But she sounds happy. She doesn t sound like she's making fun of him.

Aqualad's hand slides down Superboy's arm, past his shirt sleeve, to his bare skin. He spreads his fingers, the webbing between them soft against Superboy's arm. Miss Martian's fingers begin drawing more complicated patterns on his back.

Superboy sinks a little lower against the cushions and closes his eyes. He can hear Aqualad's heartbeat. He can hear Miss Martian's internal flows. Further away he can still hear Robin and Kid Flash and Red Tornado. He can feel the warmth spreading through his body from the other two on the couch.

It feels correct now. It feels like sunshine, like just having eaten, like just having won a fight.

Instead of hoping that Batman's call to arms comes as soon as possible, Superboy starts to hope that it waits a little longer. 


End file.
